Berkshire Hathaway GUARD homeowners insurance

Overview

Berkshire Hathaway GUARD Insurance Companies is a Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania insurance group owned by Berkshire Hathaway through National Indemnity Company. It is built around small-business coverage, with workers' compensation as its flagship line, plus businessowner's policies, commercial auto, umbrella and general liability sold through independent agents. From 2018 until 2024 it also sold homeowners, condo, renters and personal umbrella policies, written by AmGUARD Insurance Company. That is the name most homeowners see on a declarations page or a nonrenewal letter.

For homeowners, GUARD is now a company on its way out. AmGUARD stopped accepting new homeowners and personal umbrella submissions nationwide on July 8, 2024 and is nonrenewing existing policies as each state's rules allow. Its product page no longer lists homeowners coverage at all.

The Berkshire Hathaway Group ranked #73 among U.S. homeowners insurance groups by 2025 direct premiums written, with $277.3 million (0.15% of the national market), according to NAIC market share data. That figure counts every Berkshire Hathaway insurer in the United States, so it covers GUARD's homeowners policies still running off during 2025 along with any homeowners premium written by other Berkshire units. Berkshire's best-known consumer brand, GEICO, sells home insurance under a separate arrangement (see GEICO Homeowners Insurance).

History

GUARD began in 1982, when AmGUARD Insurance Company and a service company, InterGUARD, started trading as AmGUARD Enterprises; by the mid-1980s the group was called The GUARD Network. NorGUARD Insurance Company was added in 1987. In 1995 GUARD bought Mutual Fire Insurance Company of Saco, Maine, demutualized it and renamed it EastGUARD. The group became GUARD Insurance Group around 2000 and formed WestGUARD Insurance Company in February 2003.

Israel's Clal Insurance Enterprises Holdings bought GUARD in May 2007. National Indemnity, a Berkshire Hathaway subsidiary, acquired it in October 2012, and the companies were rebranded Berkshire Hathaway GUARD Insurance Companies in 2013. WestGUARD now serves as the holding company for AmGUARD, EastGUARD, NorGUARD and AZGUARD, an excess and surplus lines carrier added in 2019. Adam Edelstein is president and chief executive.

Homeowners was a late and short-lived addition. GUARD ran a pilot in December 2017 and announced in January 2018 that it was writing homeowners and personal umbrella coverage in Pennsylvania, with New Jersey planned next and a long-range goal of selling countrywide. Then-CEO Sy Foguel pitched it to agents who already placed commercial accounts with GUARD. The product aimed at homes valued at $75,000 to $2 million, took one- to four-family dwellings, condos and rentals, considered homes owned by corporations and LLCs or used for incidental business, and offered umbrella limits up to $5 million and a discount for customers with GUARD commercial policies. GUARD entered California in 2019.

Homeowners coverage

There is no homeowners product to buy from GUARD today. If you still have an AmGUARD homeowners policy, it remains in force with its existing coverage until its expiration or nonrenewal date, and claims under it are handled by GUARD as usual. What changes is renewal: the company files withdrawal plans with each state, and the notice period and timetable for your nonrenewal depend on your state's law, not on anything you did.

Practical steps for a policyholder:

• Read the nonrenewal notice for the effective date and any replacement offer. In downstate New York, Kingstone Insurance Company was named to offer replacement policies to selected AmGUARD customers (see Kingstone Insurance).
• Start shopping at least 60 days before the end date. Your independent agent likely represents other carriers and has your home's details on file.
• Keep the AmGUARD declarations page and loss history; the next insurer will ask about prior coverage and claims, and a gap in coverage can raise your price or breach your mortgage terms.

Our guide your home insurance was nonrenewed: what to do now walks through the process in more detail.

Where it sells and recent market moves

The retreat came in three steps.

1. 2022, narrowing. At the end of June 2022 GUARD told agents it would no longer accept new homeowners submissions, in any state, for dwellings with more than two families or for properties in ISO public protection classes 8, 9, 10, X or Y, which generally means homes far from a fire station or hydrant. Renewals were not affected.
2. 2023, California. On July 21, 2023 AmGUARD filed to withdraw its homeowners and personal umbrella programs from California and to nonrenew policies starting in mid-November 2023. It reported 50,212 active policies at the end of 2022. The California Department of Insurance said AmGUARD had begun writing in the state in 2019 and suffered major losses in 2020, 2021 and 2022, often two to three times the average. Unlike insurers that only paused new business, it dropped existing customers.
3. 2024, nationwide exit. Effective July 8, 2024, AmGUARD withdrew from the admitted personal lines market nationwide to focus on commercial lines, stopping new homeowners and personal umbrella submissions and nonrenewing existing policies subject to state law. Agent associations flagged run-off rules in states including Connecticut, New Hampshire, New Jersey and New York.

In April 2025 Kingstone announced it would offer replacement policies to selected AmGUARD homeowners customers in downstate New York, a book of about $70 million in written premium, with effective dates starting in the third quarter of 2025; the withdrawal plan was then pending approval by the New York Department of Financial Services. In that announcement Edelstein said GUARD had decided to stop writing admitted homeowners business nationwide.

Claims

Claims on existing policies can be reported at 888-639-2567 (1-888-NEW-CLMS), by email to [email protected], through the online claim form, which still includes a homeowners option, or through the Policyholder Service Center, where you can check claim status and message your adjuster. GUARD says an adjuster contacts you within 24 business hours of a report during catastrophe events. It offers access to Contractor Connection's network of vetted contractors for repairs. Claims mail goes to P.O. Box 1368, Wilkes-Barre, PA 18703-1368.

Ratings and reputation

AM Best affirmed the financial strength rating of A+ (Superior) and long-term issuer credit ratings of "aa-" for AmGUARD, EastGUARD, NorGUARD and WestGUARD on August 12, 2026, all with a stable outlook. The rating held steady through the homeowners withdrawal, which GUARD presented as a decision to concentrate on commercial lines. Claims on policies already issued remain AmGUARD's obligation.

Its reputation among homeowners is shaped by how it left. The California withdrawal nonrenewed tens of thousands of existing customers after roughly four years in the state, and the 2024 decision ended a product launched only six years earlier.

Who it suits

GUARD no longer suits anyone looking to buy homeowners insurance. This profile is for people who still hold an AmGUARD policy, received a nonrenewal notice, or need to file a claim on a policy that is still in force. Small-business owners can still buy GUARD's commercial coverage through agents.

• Strengths: A+ (Superior) from AM Best, affirmed August 2026, with Berkshire Hathaway ownership; claims on in-force policies continue to be handled; a replacement-policy arrangement with Kingstone for selected downstate New York customers.
• Weaknesses: stopped writing new homeowners business nationwide in July 2024 and is nonrenewing existing policies; dropped existing California customers starting in November 2023; homeowners was never a core line, with only about six years of new sales.

How to contact Berkshire Hathaway GUARD